Tag, I’m It

Posted on May 28, 2008 by Leigha

I've been tagged by Squib-Stitcher (who has a lovely photograph of herself on her blog, by the way), so here goes:

What was I doing 10 years ago?
I was still in college, hating life and wishing that I was out of school. I quit soon thereafter, and here I am today. Back in school. Wishing I was out of school, but I'm not hating life. Baby steps, y'all.

What are 5 things on my to-do list for today?
1. Grocery store, because we have no food.
2. Fold a load of laundry when I get home so that we're not living like a bunch of hobos with clean laundry piled up all around us. Well, I guess hobos don't have clean laundry around, but you get what I mean.
3. Read a chapter of my accounting textbook. Try to stay awake.
4. Bathe the kids. See hobo comment above.
5. Knit on the cardigan that I started a few days ago.

Snacks I enjoy:
You would be hard pressed to find snacks that I don't enjoy. Salty and sweet, breads, ice creams, crackers…you get the idea. And you also see why my ass is expanding.

Things I would do if I were a billionare:
Quit work. Go to school full time and get it over with. Buy a big, new house, and then set out to do good things with the money. Feed the needy. Wipe out all of the people who hurt children. And somehow, convince Cold Play and Keen to quit making music. IT IS FOR THE GOOD OF THE WORLD, PEOPLE.

Places I have lived:
Texas, Texas and Texas. Did I mention Texas? Because yeah…Texas. I'm not what you would call a "world traveler". Or even a country traveler. I've been out of Texas a few times in my life. I KNOW. I am working on it!

I suck at tagging folks, so if you're reading this, you're officially tagged.

 

 

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Plans, Cleaning, and Driving My Husband Crazy

Posted on May 22, 2008 by Leigha

We've got a rather special occasion coming up soon, and, well, I…I hate to spoil it by just yelling it up front and all, but let's just say that a little someone in my house is about to have a lot of people over, and we have to do some things to get ready for these people.

That's right, folks: my carpet has a date. With the steam cleaner. It will get hot and heavy, I can guarantee it.

I really, really hate having my carpets cleaned. It seems like it takes hours for them to dry; we have to put the furniture up on blocks for a day or two because apparently, my couch needs an oil change, and while you're under there, can you rotate the tires too, please? Thanks. But the carpets, they need it badly; between the two cats that have no other purpose in life than to shed and hork up hairballs on my carpet and the three year old that doesn't understand why mommy needs the juice to stay in the kitchen, the carpets are a mess. The steam cleaner guys come out, work their magic, and ta-da! I have beige carpets again instead of, uh, grey? Whatever color they are now.

Sarah turns a year old at the first of June, and we're going to throw a party, but that also means that we've got to get some things done around the house. Like getting new patio furniture (and by new, I mean ANY patio furniture). And one of those tent/gazeebo things to shade us from the volcano we call The Sun here in Texas. And artwork to match the recently changed up living room. All of this adds up to Mike having to do things, and while he's generally happy to hang, assemble, and clean, I have a feeling that I'm getting on his nerves when I'm looking at YET ANOTHER lawn furniture set. He would like me to MAKE UP MY MIND already and also, just freakin' get stuff done instead of talking about it OVER and OVER and OVER. What can I say? I like the planning just as much as the actual doing. I'm weird like that. But he's getting geeky things out of it, like speakers mounted to the outside of the house and speaker plates inside. And it's forcing me to de-packrat a bit, so he can't complain TOO much.

Speaking of, I need to order a cake. Gak!

 

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Mother’s Day, or How I’m a Spoiled Brat

Posted on May 13, 2008 by Leigha

I'm lucky. Seriously. In real life, I complain a lot about blah blah blah everything, but when I stop to think about it, I realize that I've got it pretty damn easy.  So for Mother's Day, the only thing I wanted was to get a few trees planted in the back yard. What I got was a day of shopping all by myself while my husband watched the rugrats, which I think is a much better idea than some stupid old trees. Although I still want those trees planted.

It was fantastic. I had three entire hours where I wasn't changing diapers, or getting someone juice, or responding to demands for a movie. I didn't have to hold, or bounce, or feed, or drag anything out of anyone's mouth. No one pooped and required a wipe. No one sneezed and needed snot cleaned off of their face. I walked from store to store in our outdoor outlet mall, looking at things that had nothing to do with anyone but me. Shoes, purses, clothes, jewelry…whatever I wanted. I even stopped by Starbucks and got an Iced Tea Lemonade, which I didn't have to share.

But then, I realized how late it was getting, so I got in the car and drove home, where the shiny faces of my kids were waiting for me. They missed me. They aren't used to having their father watch them alone, and when I sat down in the floor to say hi to them, they both dog piled me. And I realized that while I sometimes really need some time to myself, I always look forward to coming home and seeing them. They love me, and they only drive me crazy because they love me. Folks tell me that before too long, Bryan will think I'm NOT COOL and Sarah will be asking me to drop her off a block from the school so that her friends don't see her mom actually driving her. They are only small for so long (Sarah's first birthday is in THREE WEEKS), and I'm trying to soak it up while I can.

My only request – STOP PRYING MY EYELIDS OPEN when you want me to wake up, Mr. It's Time To Get Up Because I Damn Well Say So.

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Obsession

Posted on May 6, 2008 by Leigha

I tend to buy yarn in spurts. I'll go for months without purchasing or swapping anything, and then one day, I get that random itch (you know EXACTLY what I'm talking about), and three days later the house is buried under a mound of fiber. I also tend to obsess over the same colors or combination of colors, so one block of purchases will all be red, the next different shades of purple, so on and so forth. The latest color combinations have been pink and green together; I've gotten three skeins of sock yarn in the past two weeks with the same colors.

Not that I needed them, of course. The drawer that I stash all of my sock yarn in is getting a bit crowded, meaning that I better stop stashing and start KNITTING. 

 

This is the aforementioned Woodland Shawl in Fearless Fibers Superwash Sock, color Sublime; the skein looked brown at first glance, but the more I knit through it, the more I see the balance of gold and green, red and brown. I added two pattern repeats so that it was a bit wider than the original pattern. It has been the perfect travel project lately; I've memorized the pattern, the yarn is pretty sturdy and well behaved, and I can chunk the entire thing into my purse and not worry about how delicate it is. I'm hoping to finish it up soon and block it, but knowing me, it'll still be sitting around six months from now, probably only a few repeats short of being complete. I have knitting ADD lately, and I can't focus on one single thing at a time. Actually, that might be more of a symptom of my life, and not so much just limited to knitting.

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Wii Like To Play

Posted on May 2, 2008 by Leigha

I got sucked in.

We've debated about getting one of these bad boys for a while now; Mike has his beloved XBox 360 and Halo 3 that really takes up the majority of the gaming time, and we've also got a Playstation 3 just for the Blu-Ray player, so I figured we were pretty well set as far as gaming systems go. Plus, there was the added benefit of not being able to find the suckers for so long; running across one was like unearthing oil in your backyard. So when I was in Best Buy the other night and I saw one sitting out on the table, I snatched it up without another thought.

It's AWESOME. Everything everyone told me it would be. We also bought MarioKart with it, along with a spare controller and an additional spare wheel, and we played against each other for a few hours the first night we had it up and running. Hell, even Bryan thought it was neat – it's a game that doesn't really require him to do much more than push one button and steer; as far as a three year old is concerned, that's the best possible scenario. It also came with Wii Sports, which I plugged in last night and had a blast playing tennis and bowling. I've even gone as far as to order the Wii Fit, because I'm a giant dork and it looks really cool.

I suddenly see a little less knitting in my future.

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Stash Expansion

Posted on April 27, 2008 by Leigha

We all have our Holy Grail of yarn. For some, it's the elusive Wollmeise; for others, it's the expensive cashmere sweater's worth of stash that they find at a great discount. My particular dream yarn is the Yarntini Self Striping Pure Breeze. It was only distributed through a sock club, and therefor was almost impossible to find.

UNTIL NOW.

 

I found it. I was stalking Ravelry one morning, saw a post for scads and scads of sock yarns, and I managed to finagle this one for myself (along with some Wollmeise and another skein of Yarntini). The problem: now that I have it, I don't want to knit it. I just want to stash it and know that I've got it there for that elusive day when I DO decide that I want to knit it up. I've got a couple of skeins in my stash that I do the same thing to – I buy them, stash them, and then just savor the fact that I've got them.

I've started a shawl with some yarn that I won through a Swap Partner Contest. Somehow, I managed to win the Most Offensive Swap Gift prize; I'm considering making myself a badge and putting it on the sidebar of my blog, just to assert my bragging rights. I won a skein of Fearless Fibers Superwash Merino Wool Sock Yarn in Sublime, which is a very pretty brown with short, subtle shots of gold and forest green through it. It fits perfectly with the Woodland Shawl that I started with it. Which reminds me, I need to add that to my Works In Progress list. Gah.  

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Ankle Injury, The Conclusion

Posted on April 9, 2008 by Leigha

The verdict is in: I have a compound sprain, and I managed to fracture off a tiny peice of bone in the process. I have to wear a brace for the next four weeks and attend twice-weekly physical therapy sessions, and at the end of all of this, we'll reevaulate where I'm at and what to do next. The doctor was really fantastic, explaining everything in layman's terms as much as possible and only giving me a little crap for waiting for two months to come in; I'm glad that I finally got off my ass and did it, though. Maybe in another four weeks this will be all behind me, and I can go back to…well, doing nothing, just like I was before. How the hell did I chip off a peice of bone? And sprain it that badly? WHILE WALKING IN MY OWN HOME?

Yes, I know. I'm the picture of grace.  

This does mean, however, that I will be able to sport some hand knit socks for the next few weeks. When I went into the doctor's office this morning, I was knitting on a pair of Wollmeise socks, with only the toe to go on the second sock, meaning the first was kitchnered and complete in my purse.  I slipped that baby on before they put the ankle stabilizer on me, and I walked around in the sock all day at the office. The brace does not allow for my normal shoes, so I've purchased some Crocks, which I will be sporting like a weirdo in my office for the next month. I even went as far as to go to a Crocs store, hoping that they would have black. Not only did they NOT have black, the only colors they did have to fit me were light blue, psycho green, and silver. I walked out of there with silver Crocs on my feet and a pair of turquoise sandals in a bag. You know, for when I have to dress up.

It is a big relief, however, that no one said that dreaded surgery word in regards to my foot. The thought of having my ankle operated on when I've got two small children and a full time job just made me want to dissolve in a puddle of stress, but as of right now, we're not even looking in that direction. That's a load of worry off of my mind, for sure.  Now on to worrying about important things, like why my son has a strange fascination with cramming his finger up his nose to the point that it bleeds. That has to mean something, right?

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Self Inflicted Ankle Injury

Posted on April 8, 2008 by Leigha

…also known as How I Do Dumb Crap and Injure Myself.

Two months ago,  when my husband was off at an all day meeting on a Saturday, I managed to screw my ankle up but good. Both kids were down for a nap, and I though, SWEET, FINALLY I can get a quick nap in, too! Except I forgot about The Girl's ability to sense any time I have to myself and to interrupt it in the rudest of ways. Right as I was dropping off, she began screaming like her eyelids were on fire, and in the sleep state I was in, I immediately jumped up and ran to her room to find out what the problem was. 

There's a reason why sleep running isn't an Olympic sport, y'all. Right as I got to her room, I stepped down on my foot wrong, and YEOWSA, pain shot up through my ankle. I sat there for five minutes, clasping the ankle and sucking air in through clenched teeth while i waited for the pain to abate. When I finally was able to get myself up again, the damn thing had already started to swell; I had to take care of both of the kids on my own until my husband decided to come back home (I wouldn't blame him if he just decided to run for the border, honestly), and by that time it was ENORMOUS. His first comment was along the lines of "But how did you get an entire orange shoved under your skin?"

It has been hurting on and off since then, and this week has been worse than usual. I've got an appointment tomorrow with an orthopedic surgeon to figure out just what in the name of Charlie I did to it, and how to best fix it. I'm hoping he'll just massage it and then send me on my merry way; I don't want to think of any alternatives that might require my flesh to be opened up and disturbed by sharp, pointy things.  I don't do well with needles and surgery in any way, shape or form. I'm honestly amazed that I'm going to the doctor at all.

Details will follow tomorrow, unless he DOES massage my feet. If that happens, I might possibly be arrested for molesting him. 

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Dammit.

Posted on April 6, 2008 by Leigha

Yeah, I know. I had to completely relaunch the blog, thanks to the combination of life sucking bastard software I was using (the rest of y'all might call it MovableType 4) and the World's Worst Web host. I had to migrate off of the software to the husband-recommended BlogEngine.net and to a new host, which is a bunch of technical gobbledy-gook meaning that I've got to go back and manually upload the previous entries (luckily, only about 15 of the bastards) along with pictures. I'm going to have to think long and hard about that; is the blather about my knitting REALLY worth all of that trouble?

Yeah, I'm not quite sure, either. 

Anywhoo, I'm back, baby.

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Ten Months

Posted on April 5, 2008 by Leigha

Today, my daughter turned ten months old.

It's strange how fast the past year of my life has gone. This time last year, I was in the middle of my sixth month of pregnancy; if I remember correctly, I was feeling pretty good, but getting a little scared of what was about to happen. Bringing a new baby into the house with a two-year old was terrifying, to say the least, and I can honestly say that it has been just as hard as I thought it would be. Not only do you have all of the Newborn Olympics to look forward to (with such popular events as One Handed Diaper Change, Baby Puke for Distance, and my personal favorite, The Worst Possible Time For a Poop Explosion), but there's a two year old in there exerting his independence and generally making you want to drop them both off at the nearest shelter.

Fast forward a full year. Run past the actual birth, which in my case involved surgery and a nice three day stay in the hospital. Leap over the first night home when the two year old spikes a 103 fever, causing your husband to dash to the hospital in the middle of the night with the kid, all the while he's yelling at you to stay away from your son because you're the only one that can take care of the baby. Spare a passing glance for the night you were in the ER with the baby at about 10 weeks of age because of a 102 fever of her own; the six needle sticks, the sleep you didn't get that night, and the terror that you remember feeling when you realized that she might be really, really sick (she ended up being perfectly okay, though, so calm down and take a deep breath). Zoom straight through to the holidays, when she finally started sleeping through the night and you praised the Lord that you didn't have to resort to Baby Benedryl, The Medicine of the Desperate. And then you'll end up right here, where you have a baby that has stopped being squidgy and adorable but has replaced them with beautiful and happy. She plays on her own more and more, and every day I'm reminded that this is it. This is the last time that I'll have a baby of my own in the house; this is the last time I'll have that bittersweet mix of indescribably difficult and heart-wrenching love.

Now I get to watch them both grow together, my three year old little boy and my ten month old little girl. She loves nothing more than to get her brother's full attention for just a minute, and it makes me smile to watch them entertain each other in the car on the way to and from daycare. It's hard. Don't mistake that for a second; having kids is harder than I ever thought it could be, and there are days when I think I'm just not cut out for parenting. Those are the worst days, but they are far outnumbered by the good, by the love that they give me each and every day.

They are totally, absolutely, unquestionably worth it.

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